Roger,
I think what you've done makes a lot of sense however I am interested in how you decided to go a dedicated high quality NAS versus a cheap server with the same disk setup - as a more versatile option that would have been the same price or a bit cheaper? Must admit this didn't occur to me originally - a thread like this openned on Whirlpool and someone said why spend $750 on an empty high quality NAS - when you can configure a HP server that is more versatile for $600 - then just add 4 disks in a RAID 5 configuration.
Is it the power draw is higher on the Server solution, or the maintenance or other factors? Curious about how you chose between a quality NAS and a reasonable, dedicated server?
Matthew
Link from Whirlpool - last entry (BTW - I don't know any of these folk myself)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum....cfm?t=1599511
My planned setup (have used a qnap 2 bay for two years, and recently played around with freeNAS, the difference in daily usability us negligable imo)
6 sata (onboard intel ich9 controller), 2 gigabit(intel), dual core atom board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813182242
Very nice looking case, built in quiet 80+ certified psu, space for 6 3.5" plus 1x2.5" drives
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14503
Sodimm ram
2 x
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=15460
OS OPTIONS
www.freenas.org, or WHS, or Windows server 2008, or linux sterner, or unRAID, or a straight linux distro with webmin...... Lots of choices all with the usability OP asked for.
Which should give basically the same device as a qnap 659pro+ (but with 4x the ram), which retails for $1300, for around $570.